Ash Barty's No.1 ranking atop the WTA hierarchy is being called into question after another disappointing run at her home grand slam.<\/p>\n
Despite crashing out in the quarter-final after nearly a year off from tennis, Barty is still miles clear atop the rankings, with Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka languishing in second over 1000 points behind.<\/p>\n
Since the 2018 US Open final, Osaka has won four of the nine grand slams held. No other player has won more than one.<\/p>\n
Barty has only reached the semi-finals of a grand slam twice in her career, and currently holds no grand slam title to her name after Polish youngster Iga Swiatek claimed Roland Garros in 2020.<\/p>\n
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The are growing concerns around the game that the WTA rankings may need reassessing after the governing body introduced dramatic changes to its system as a result of the tour being derailed by COVID-19.<\/p>\n
Those changes greatly benefitted Barty who was thrust to World No.1 under the new system which relied heavily on her red-hot second half of the 2019 season.<\/p>\n
Rather than its usual rolling 52-week window, the WTA revealed it would instead rely on a player's best 16 results in tournaments since March 2019 to determine where they sit \u2013 dubbed the "frozen rankings" system.<\/p>\n
The rankings are now being labelled "deeply out of sync" with the reality that Barty's No.1 status does not reflect her place in the pecking order.<\/p>\n
"I understand the reasons & the pandemic-adjusted WTA rankings have worked well enough until now in my view but they now seem deeply out of sync with reality with Barty still No 1 by a healthy margin holding no Slam titles (or finals) & playing so little," New York Times tennis reporter Christopher Clarey Tweeted.<\/p>\n